


Every Little Step He Takes

by DarchangelSkye



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), American Idol RPF, Glam Rock RPF, Music RPF, Real Person Fiction, Tommy Ratliff (Musician)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Acting, Actors, Alternate Universe - Actors, Dancing, F/M, Gen, M/M, Theatre
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-02-07
Updated: 2012-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-30 18:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/334591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarchangelSkye/pseuds/DarchangelSkye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During rehearsals for a local staging of <i>A Chorus Line</i>, Adam finds himself strangely intrigued by one of the production employees- even if it seems this is the last place Tommy wants to be. Just what is his story? Take a step into the theater world, where every day the actors put themselves...on the line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Little Step He Takes

From: i_dawson@mediaplayers.org  
Subject: ACL cast list/schedule  
Attachments: rehearsalschedule.pdf

Congratulations and welcome to the Media Players production of A Chorus Line! We are very excited to have such a talented cast on board for what is sure to be a quality show.  
If you are unable to open the attachment or cannot make it to the first rehearsal, please reply to this message as soon as possible.

-Iris Dawson  
Director/choreographer

MAIN CAST LIST (in alphabetical order)  
Cassie..........PAULA ABDUL  
Al..............CASEY ABRAMS  
Bobby...........CLAYTON AIKEN  
Mark............KRISTOPHER ALLEN  
Bebe............KELLY CLARKSON  
Zach............SIMON COWELL  
Val.............KATRINA DARRELL  
Maggie..........DIANA DEGARMO  
Butch...........ANOOP DESAI  
Roy.............LEE DEWYZE  
Frank...........JAMES DURBIN  
Richie..........TODRICK HALL  
Diana...........ALLISON IRAHETA  
Vicki...........LEAH LABELLE  
Greg............ADAM LAMBERT  
Mike............STEFANO LANGONE  
Judy............SIOBHAN MAGNUS  
Connie..........THIA MEGIA  
Tom.............LUKE MENARD  
Barbara.........KATHERINE MCPHEE  
Paul............JORGE NUNEZ-MENDEZ  
Lois............KELLIE PICKLER  
Kristine........HALEY REINHART  
Sheila..........LILIAN ROUNDS  
Larry...........RYAN SEACREST  
Tricia..........CAROLYN UNDERWOOD  
Don.............ACE YOUNG

SWINGS/UNDERSTUDIES  
Mike...............DAVID ARCHULETA  
Bobby, Frank.......BRADLEY BELL  
Judy, Vicki........LACEY BROWN  
Sheila, Cassie.....KARA DIODIGUARDI  
Bebe, Barbara......MIKALAH GORDON  
Paul...............DAVID HERNANDEZ  
Zach...............TAYLOR HICKS  
Don, Al............MICHAEL JOHNS  
Larry, Roy.........BLAKE LEWIS  
Maggie, Lois.......MELISSA MCGHEE  
Connie, Vicki......RAMIELE MALUBAY  
Kristine, Val......KATY O'CONNELL  
Diana..............ASHLEY RODRIGUEZ  
Richie, Butch......JERMAINE SELLERS  
Mark, Tom..........TIMOTHY URBAN  
Lois, Tricia.......BROOKE WHITE  
Greg...............JASON YEAGER

* * * * *

Adam had passed by the Chance Theater maybe one or two times in his life (after a while all the venues had begun to blend together) but had never actually had reason to set foot inside the building until first at the auditions, and now to actually rehearse and perform in here. It was a nice enough place, certainly an upgrade from many of the theaters around where "avaunt-garde" was just a codeword for "dive". And being involved in one of the greatest shows ever? Hell yes, all the nerves and aching muscles had been worth it.

There was a handful of reporters waiting at the main entrance, not for him (though a fellow can dream) but for the play's "local celebrities"- Seacrest, the only DJ who made KTKA worth listening to, Cowell, former producer, current critic, and occasional cameo-maker, and Paula, a soap actress who, to put it kindly, had been in a slump for the past couple years since her character was killed off. Adam had to hand it to her, she wouldn't have been cast if she didn't know what she was doing. As for everyone else...well, one way to find out. He rubbed the back of a calf muscle and made his way inside.

The majority of the main cast was milling around inside, some in pairs or trios, and some familiar faces Adam had seen around. One face he was definitely looking for though...and he spotted it underneath the length of dark hair with leftover fire-engine red streaks. Allison's mother had been backstage crew during Brigadoon last year, she would hang around once in a while, and despite their difference in ages she and Adam built up a sibling-like rapport. Another definite upside to being in this cast.

As Adam approached, Alli looked up from her conversation with a skinny guy with the kind of curly hair money couldn't buy and practically launched into his arms with a squealed " _Hermanooo!_ "

"Oof!" Adam laughed at the impact and gave her hair a friendly peck. "Good to see you too, hon."

"Ohmigod, this is going to be awesome, just awesome!" Alli rocked herself in the hug for a moment before turning back to her conversation partner. "Jorge, this is the dynamo I was telling you about."

"Ah, you're our Paul. Congratulations." Adam extended his hand for a shake.

"Thanks," Jorge returned the gesture with a toothy, nervous smile. "This is really a big deal for me. I mean, the last major show Alli and I've done was West Side Story senior year-"

"Latino power," she interrupted with a giggle and fist-pump.

"-and even then our parts weren't quite as big as this. That's a lotta pressure, y'know?"

Adam stepped back to give the guy a once-over. Looks-like, he was about as perfect a Paul as Adam had seen (compared to the white-bread wannabes from YouTube clips, but that was neither here nor there). As for the character itself...well, as Adam interpreted it, despite all the shit Paul had gone through that played havoc on his self-worth, he was resilient, and one didn't have to guess maybe some of that held true for Jorge.

Finally he said, "Well, for what it's worth, I'd say you're a right pick. You've got that air," he waved his hand in a _je ne sais quois_ gesture. "Just put in the same effort you did at auditions and you'll blow everybody away."

Nerves settled for the time being, the trio stayed in conversation, relating old shows (and in Adam's case, bands and revues) and the wacky things they'd seen around town. At about ten minutes before official rehearsal start time, the last member of the main cast entered the room. As opposed to all the Bob Mackie and Versace Paula wore during her time on _Pacific Heights_ , she was in slacks and a sweater, but still not the average slacks and sweater.

Alli gave a starstruck squeak. "Oh, Mami's gonna _flip_ when I tell her about this!"

"And my Abuelita," Jorge agreed, and the trio made their way towards the circle of chairs being set up by the director and someone swamped in an over-sized hoodie. "Imagine, twenty-five years and-" he snapped his fingers, "-you and your hotel suite burn to a crisp, taking half the characters' secrets with you."

"Writers would've retconned those secrets anyway." Adam thumbed towards a sandy-haired fellow dressed like he was already in costume; the perfect boy-next-door All-American white-bread type looking for his big break. "Y'think that cutie would mind if I sat next to him?"

Jorge laughed. "You mean Kris? Forget it! Some other guy tried coming on to him at auditions and he was scorned so hard, when it came time for his group to do the tap combination he kept tripping over his feet!"

"The cute ones are always straight," Adam gave a dramatic sigh as the trio flopped in their chairs beside Lil, who was fresh off an Ain't Misbehavin' touring company.

"Oh cheer up, I hear Clay's single," Alli teased.

"Slept with his understudy last year, honey, that's more than enough for me."

Once everyone was seated, Iris, the director, stood at the opening of the circle to speak; the traditional glad-to-see-you-here-and-let's-hope-everyone-puts-in-their-best-effort speech that Adam could swear he'd even heard back in grade school. He'd never heard of Iris having a reputation for being a hardass, but the flickering looks of panic in some younger players' eyes as she laid down the rules confirmed she meant business.

"That being said," she finished with a smile, "we're also here to have fun, because this is what we love doing." The hoodied figure returned with a stack of books, and Adam noticed a shock of bleached hair limping out. "While you go around and introduce yourselves, my go-fer Tommy here'll hand you your scores and scripts. These are your Bibles, 'cept the Gideons aren't replacing them for free and neither is Tams-Witmark."

That gave the first mass chuckle of the day, and the circle started with the appropriately energetic girl playing Connie. Most of the younger ones came with a little joke (Lee waving his arms in a haphazard manner to illustrate his "debut as Wrong-Arms Roy," or Anoop stating he was Butch "because our brilliant casting director feels Indian is just as good as black"), Seacrest talked like he was still announcing the Top 40, and Paula gave a shy, sweet smile and finger-wave- quite another contrast to her character's persona.

The go-fer- Tommy- shuffled through his shrinking pile of scripts as he approached Adam's end of the circle. "Greg, Greg- here ya go," he said with a tinge of a valley accent and looked up to hand over the books. More bleached-blond hair, heavy-lidded brown eyes, thin tapered nose, lips nice enough to be a girl's- all that Adam took in in a split-second. Years of performing had 'cursed' him with being observant of appearances.

"Thanks," he said simply and ran his fingers over the embossed letters in the cover.

Iris returned with an iPod deck when the introductions were done. "OK, today's a read-through, I have the orchestral MP3s here so we can practice cues. If you don't feel like singing today you can just fa-la-la it. We'll take a break after the Montage..."

Papers shuffled, throats cleared, buttons clicked, and the familiar piano intro waved through the speakers to transport the cast to another time and place, one they knew all too well.

Almost everyone opted to sing in basic rhythm, and for a first read-through, Adam observed that voices were surprisingly clear. Inflections for the actual line-reading were tinged with nerves in places, but that still wasn't bad. Stefano sat on the edge of his seat and swung his feet to and fro like he couldn't wait to start dancing. When Diana smiled while raising her arms, one could see flashes of the character's grief behind it, and the two portraying Al and Kristine seemed to have a natural chemistry already. And, well, it wasn't taking much for Cowell to get into character, even with the clipped accent many were familiar with.

As for Adam himself- he laughed quietly as his big humorous line in the Montage was approaching. He had a particular high note reserved for revues that usually brought the house down- let's see if it'd be appropriate here. "... _'and after about an hour or so she said, "Ooohh!...don't you want to feel anything else?_'" Some raised eyebrows- " _'And I suddenly thought to myself, 'No, I don't.''_ ". And a round of chuckles. Yep, he still had it.

His eyes scanned around the circle- heh, the go-fer had skittered off. This didn't look like his kind of place anyway.

* * * * *

"Damn girl, I knew you could wail, but that was somethin' else!" Adam addressed Alli as the group stood for break, and handed her a water bottle she drunk from deeply. He'd known since her singing along to the classic rock station that would come in fuzzy backstage, but her tone made up for that tenfold.

She drained the bottle in a few gulps and wiped her forehead. "I've been playing my CD of that for weeks straight and killing my lungs to get it right!"

"It's true, she has," Jorge confirmed with a nervous laugh for himself, as his big monologue was coming up.

Adam flashed a reassuring smile at the two, then followed the small gaggle of people heading for the washrooms, turning the right corner for the men's room. On the way back, he saw Tommy's hoodied figure hunched over the photocopier in a hallway alcove. If the guy worked here, might as well ask him... "Hey, uh, Tommy, right?" he queried. Enough temp work experience had taught him such employees hate being referred to as "hey-you."

Tommy lifted his head and swept a bleached bang from his eyes. "Yeah?" he asked with a blank expression.

"Is there a vending machine around here?" Oh, his kingdom for an energy bar, that light breakfast just wasn't cutting it.

"Should be on the second floor," Tommy said simply before turning back to his work with the same blankness.

Hmm, not a social person. Adam shrugged and made his jog to the second floor. He came back just in time with his bar (and a side-glance version of the Look from Iris) to see Katrina getting into character already as she strutted while reciting: " _'So, the day after I turned eighteen, I kissed the folks goodbye, got on a Trailways bus, and headed for the Big Bad Apple...'_ "

* * * * *

"I don't know about you all, but I could go for a coffee. Anyone wanna come with? It's only down the block," Lil asked as everyone gathered up their things after the read-through. 

Adam, Alli, and Jorge were still in the cluster with her, joined by Kris and one of the few swings who had come today, a smiley blonde wisp of cute hanging to his arm. Looked like there was the reason the other guy was scorned at audition. Ah, no major loss. "Sounds like a plan," Adam agreed and hefted his bookbag over his shoulder.

Katy- yeah, that was her name- turned to Jorge and alighted a hand on his shoulder with a sweet smile. "I have to tell you, that was one of the best renditions of Paul I've ever heard. If I was in the audience, I'd still be crying!"

"Oh, it was nothing," he looked to his feet with an aw-shucks grin, even while Alli held to his arm and chided him gently for his modesty.

The whole cast left in their respective clusters or singletons out the door, and Adam turned his head to see Tommy clutching a messenger bag to his chest like it contained trade secrets while he shuffled to an exit. "Er, anybody seen him around before?" he asked casually and motioned with a thumb.

Lil pursed her lips and tilted her head in thought. "I might've seen him when I did For Once On This Island here a couple years ago. Goes in and out carryin' things and doesn't say two words. Doesn't look like his favorite place to be."

"Well, you got to work where you can," Kris said and they nodded in knowing agreement.

Just as they hit the sidewalk to make their way down to the bistro, they heard several voices speak up at once and turned their heads to see the same group of reporters from earlier practically leaping upon Seacrest, Cowell, and Paula, cameras and tape recorders at every angle.

"Oh, to live that life," Alli said wistfully.

"I'm sure sometimes they say the same thing about us simpletons," Adam said with a light laugh and the group kept on their way.

****tbc****


End file.
